faraway

On 27 May 2006, Saturday, we were still in Sanur Bali. We woke up early that day because we, together with Leanna and Jo, were going to Ubud in Bali which took one hour to get there from Sanur.

At 7am I turned my cell phone on and got a text message from my brother in Yogya, Edo. I can not remember what time he sent it to me, but I think around 6 am.
He said “Kak, barusan ono gempa gedhe!” (sister, there were an earthquake this morning).
I replied “kuwi kan lak biasa tho .. ning Yogya kan wis kerep gempa” (that was usual, was not it? Yogya often had earthquakes).
“yang ini gedhe tenan Kak, air kolam kita yang gedhe sampai muncrat ke atas dan tinggal setengah!” (this time, the earthquake was very big, our pond water was lurching up and leaving half) he replied.
Suddently, I thought about my parents and tried to call his cell but could not get through. Then I sent him a message again “kok telpon omah gak urip seh. Piye Bapak Ibu dan adik2 yang lain, lan piye omah?” (Why the phone at home is not working? How is our parents and brothers, how is the house?).
He replied “Listrik mati dan HP juga gak bisa dihubungi. Ortu selamat dan rumah juga gak ada yang rusak cuma bbrp barang terutama koleksi keramiknya ibu yang pecah.” (The electricity was dead include the phone. They are all fine, the house are also fine. Just some stuffs broken but nothing serious).
Whew, I felt released …

Then, I turned on the TV but no news about it yet. We thought maybe because it was very early and no news about the eartquake yet. I tried to call home in Yogya but the line was cut off. Tried to call my parents’s cells were also no network.

We decided to have a breakfast and try to call them again later.

In Ubud, I kept trying to call my house in Yogya and still did not get through. Eventhough I was not very worried about them but I wanted to hear their voices and made sure that they were fine and were not traumatized. Finally at 2pm, I could talk to my Mom and Dad. They were fine, they were happy after talked to Zach (for my parents, a call from their grandson can brighten their life). My Dad told me about the earthquake, which buildings were destroyed, how many victims in Sardjito Hospital. We also talked about the relation between earthquake- tsunami-Merapi Mountain. This earthquake has predicted by the scientists since the tsunami, but ironically, everyone has been watching Mt. Merapi.

I was thinking, how many richter scale was the earthquake. Was it same with tsunami? How many number of people who were affected, whether as many as tsunami? How were my friends and their family in Yogya?

Then, I tried to call my friends in Yogya but nobody picked up their cell. So I decided to send them a text message and waited for their reply.

At night in the hotel, I called Dodok, my friend in Yogya. I asked him about the condition of our friends. He said that everybody was fine, just many of our friends’s relatives were died. I felt very sorry to hear that.

Until now, I do not do anything yet. I really want to go to Yogya but the situation is still unpredictable. The condition is not appropriate for the kids. I felt sad because by my limitation, I could not do much for them yet. I am just helping a few organizations in Yogya to collect the donations.

Yogya is my home, a place where I grew up. A beautiful place! But on 27 May 2006, in early morning, an earthquake with a strength of 5.9 on the richter scale has hit my hometown. The number of people who were died around 6300, injured 46.000 and homes damaged or destroyed 139.000. This numbers are still continuing to rise. Yogya needs our help. I am urging to all of you, wherever you are, to help them by doing whatever you can do ….

Galuh
Thank you for all of you who had called or sent me a text message to find out about my family in Yogya. They are all fine.